VIENNA, Austria � The media watchdog in Europe's leading security
organization criticized the United States yesterday for intruding on the
private lives of Americans with a law passed in response to the September
11 attacks.
Freimut Duve of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE)
in Europe condemned the FBI and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service for monitoring library records and bookstore receipts under the USA
Patriot Act.
The act granted federal agencies sweeping powers to access personal
information about U.S. citizens in an attempt to prevent terrorist attacks.
Though sympathetic to such concerns, Mr. Duve said it was evolving into an
unprecedented attack on freedom to read.
"This goes much too far," he said. "It may invite other governments
to do the same."
He sought an explanation in a letter to Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell. Noting that secrecy surrounds the act, Mr. Duve said Mr. Powell
should clarify the U.S. position.
Mr. Duve presented his concerns at a meeting of the Vienna-based OSCE
and won support from Russia and the nations of the European Union.
The U.S. deputy chief of mission to the OSCE, Douglas Davidson,
argued that the Patriot Act sets boundaries for intrusions, giving access
to such information only in the event of an investigation into
international terrorism or clandestine intelligence.
"Judicial safeguards and oversight remain in place to prevent the
abuse of this authority," Mr. Davidson said in a statement. "This
legislation has a very narrow focus and can only be implemented in specific
and narrow cases after judicial review."
It was not the first time that Mr. Duve has complained about
activities in the United States. He has criticized White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer for advising Americans to "watch what they say."
"This kind of thing can't be said by a spokesperson of one of the
oldest democracies in the world," he said. "Impossible."
The American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the Patriot Act in
U.S. courts, demanding that the government produce records on how often
such searches are conducted.
I just heard that half of all west australians are registered at their
local library.A defacto ID card after car licence?
